But Muhammad did not approve of any of them.
Several ideas were bandied about: bells like those used in churches, horns like those in synagogues, drums, and so on. Given all of these needs, the Muslim community had to come up with a way to alert people five times each day. This is called salat ul-Jumu’ah (the Gathering Prayer). Yet another reason for notifying people is that Muslim men over the age of puberty are required to attend a special service on Friday afternoon in which they hear a sermon. Moreover, since Islam taught that prayer in congregation was better in the sight of Allah SWT than prayer alone, people needed to be informed when the congregation was forming in the mosque. Some way had to be found to let people know that the prayer time had come. People told time by the position of the sun. Islam requires prayer to be performed at five fixed times, and in those days clocks were not invented. The appearance of the building wasn’t what was important, however it was the strength of character of those who entered it. It was illuminated with torches at night. The mosque was a simple structure made of mud bricks with a roof of palm leaves, balanced on wooden poles. The first mosque was built in a small town outside of Medina called Quba, and the great Mosque of the Prophet was soon constructed in the center of the city. Later on, after Muhammad was invited to migrate with his followers to Medina, some 200 miles to the north, the Muslim community was given permission to construct a house of prayer. There were no church bells in Rome during Nero’s time, nor were there any similar devices in Mecca to call Muslims to prayer. This situation is akin to the period of Christian persecution by the Romans in the first two centuries of Christianity. The followers of Muhammad, who are known as his Sahaba, or companions, enjoyed no religious freedom of worship in the land of their birth. Muslims could meet only in small, secret rooms, and any Muslim who dared to pray near the Ka’bah was immediately set upon and beaten. Prayer under such circumstances was difficult and unnerving. Most of the converts to Islam in this period, which is called the Meccan period, were poor, young, or slaves thus these early followers had little protection from vengeful families or enraged public officials and their mobs. For 13 long years Muhammad’s ever-growing following had to endure immense physical and mental pressure. Many Muslims had to hide their identity for fear of persecution, torture, or worse.
No mosques were built in the city, nor would the Meccans have entertained such an enterprise. Anyone found praying could be attacked or ridiculed. When the time for prayers came, there was no public call for people to congregate. Muhammad wasn’t directly attacked at first, because of his family connections, but other Muslims weren’t so lucky. When this didn’t work, and they saw many people still accepting Islam, the city authorities resorted to violence and even murder. They attacked Muhammad through a virulent smear campaign and a bitter propaganda war. Understandably, the Meccans, who made their living by catering to the pilgrims who traveled from far and wide to venerate their idols, were furious. At the age of 40, when Muhammad began preaching that there was only one God and that idols were man-made pieces of wood and stone. Muhammad lived in Mecca, a city devoted to the business of idol-worship. When the Muslim community was in its infancy, prayer was a precarious practice.